Middle Paleolithic Human Remains from Bisitun Cave, Iran

Abstract

Résumé: En 1949, C. S. Coon a identifié comme humains deux restes fossiles provenant des niveaux moustériens de la grotte de Bisitun, près de Kermanshah, en Iran. Le premier, une incisive d’un bovidé, doit donc être écarté de l’échantillon des fossiles humains. Le deuxième est une diaphyse proximale de radius droit humain. La comparaison des dimensions de cette diaphyse à celles des radius droits des Néandertaliens et des premiers hommes modernes du Paléolithique moyen la rend proche des Néandertaliens (et des hommes modernes du Paléolithique supérieur), mais elle la sépare des hommes fossiles connus du Paléolithique moyen de l’Asie du Sud-Ouest.

Late Pleistocene human remains from Wezmeh Cave, western Iran

“…The principal exception is the 10 partial Neandertal skeletons excavated in Shanidar Cave (Iraq) between 1953 and 1960(Solecki, 1963Trinkaus, 1983;Cowgill et al, 2007). Of the Middle Paleolithic fragmentary remains from Bisitun and Tamtama caves (Iran) excavated by Coon (1951), only the Bisitun 1 radial diaphysis is human (Trinkaus, 2006;Trinkaus and Biglari, 2006). Fragments of earlier Upper Paleolithic humans have also been noted from Gar Arjeneh (Iran) but are undescribed (Hole and Flannery, 1967).…”

Carnivores and their prey in the Wezmeh Cave (Kermanshah, Iran): a Late Pleistocene refuge in the Zagros

“…Rochelot, Guattari, Unikoté, and Rochers-de-Villeneuve: Tournepiche et al, 1996;Giacobini, 1990-91;Michel, 2004;Beauval et al, 2005). Independent of their origin, the Wezmeh Cave human tooth can be added to the human remains found in Bisitun and Shanidar (Trinkaus, 1983;Trinkaus & Biglari, 2006) that confirm the presence of humans in this part of the Zagros during the Late Pleistocene.…”

“…Wezmeh Cave is also important with respect to Late Pleistocene human remains. Since the discovery of a Middle Paleolithic hominid specimen at Bisitun cave in the late 1940s and a large number of Neanderthal remains at Shanidar in the 1950s and 1960s (Trinkaus, 1983;Trinkaus & Biglari, 2006;Cowgill et al, 2007), this is the first new Paleolithic human fossil site in the Zagros.…”

Shanidar Cave and the Baradostian, a Zagros Aurignacian industry

“…The fact that some of this material shows cut marks and burning has been used to suggest cannibalism and ritual treatment of human remains, but this should be excluded from the repertoire of Baradostian behaviour pending better contextual and chronological data: the bulk of the material is probably Epipalaeolithic in date and has been conflated with the Baradostian. Trinkaus and Biglari (2006) reported a Neanderthal radius fragment from Bisitun and there is a modern human molar from Warwasi's lower Baradostian levels (Scott & Marean 2009;Tsanova 2013). Scott and Marean (2009) posited that the Zagros and its late surviving Neanderthal groups could have formed a barrier to incoming modern human populations from Africa.…”